People often possess and carry with them one or more of a variety of mobile electronic computing devices. These mobile computing devices are known to include cellular phones, smartphones, tablet computers (or simply tablets), and handheld media players amongst several other well-known mobile computing devices. Many of these devices are frequently used by their owners to store personal or sensitive data. For example, users of mobile devices are known to store sensitive data such as credit card numbers, passwords, social security numbers, bank information, contact lists, calendar information, and other sensitive data. Accordingly, if the mobile device is lost or stolen, the loss of the device can be exceedingly disruptive to the owner's peace of mind and security. Thus, the owner may desire to prevent access to their sensitive data if their mobile device is lost.
Some manufacturers of mobile computing devices provide a password feature, in an effort to prevent unauthorized access the mobile computing device, if the device is lost or stolen. The password is typically requested upon power up or actuating a “home,” “start,” or similar button of the device. However, there are a number of well-known workarounds that an unauthorized user may use to bypass or reveal the password.
There are technologies available today that allow a user to remotely locate a lost mobile device, such as a smartphone. Some of these technologies also allow a user to track their lost device, if the device is in transit. Additionally, some mobile computing devices may allow the user remotely lock the device and remove the data stored on the device.
However, a disadvantage of these available technologies is that once an unauthorized user has accessed sensitive data stored on the mobile device, such as passwords and other data, the unauthorized user appears as an authorized user to the device, since they may possess the password and other information for accessing data stored on the device and other sensitive information. As can be appreciated, an alternative mechanism to inhibit access to data stored on the mobile computing device would be desirable.